This relates generally to electronic devices, and more particularly, to operating electronic devices to conduct mobile payment transactions.
Portable electronic devices such as cellular telephones are sometimes provided with near field communications (NFC) circuitry that allows the electronic devices to perform contactless proximity-based communications with a corresponding NFC reader. Oftentimes, the NFC circuitry in a user device is used to carry out financial transactions or other secure data transactions that require the user device to verify and access a commerce credential such as a credit card credential. The secure data that is necessary for performing such mobile financial transactions is typically stored on a secure element within an electronic device.
Consider a scenario in which a user of an electronic device wishes to make a payment at a given NFC reader terminal. The electronic device is configured to operate using a particular hardware setting. For example, the electronic device may be configured to output signals at a constant output power level. Assuming all the financial information that is necessary to carry out the transaction has been approved and is in place, the financial transaction at the given NFC reader can still fail if the hardware setting of the electronic device is not correctly set. In the example above, the financial transaction will fail if the constant output power level is too high or too low. In such scenarios, repeated attempts to make a mobile payment transaction with the electronic device using the incorrect hardware setting will continue to fail at the NFC reader terminal.